Important Note: Please see Author's Note for disclaimers.
Well... Here, I'll give you a summary. All rights regarding to Sailor Moon
series and the characters involved go to Naoko Takeuchi. However this fanfic,
along with the new attack for Sailor Mercury, are of my creation.

Author's Note: This fanfic takes place during the middle of the
original Sailor Moon series, where all of the seven Rainbow Crystals has
been discovered. Sailor Venus, though, hasn't made her appearance yet.

The skies over the city of Tokyo rolled with thunder as flashes of electricity
temporarily illuminated the city. The rain was falling in torrents, drenching
everything. Except a for few occasional people who loved the rain, everyone
was cuddling under roofs, seeking shelter from the downpour.

The Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden was completely deserted, and the people
were long gone, for it was night. It was silent here, except for the sounds
of the rainstorm.

This uncanny silence was interrupted by the shrieking of an intense electrical
disturbance taking place in the park. All of the water in the vicinity
was instantly converted to steam.

Arcs of electricity appeared in one spot, slowly building in fury and intensity.
It expanded until the maelstrom had covered a good chunk of space.

Something shifted once, but reverted back to normal. Then it shifted again.
Electric bolts began to swirl around the tiny rip inside the fabric of
space and time, feeding it energy so it would widen.

It continued for several minutes before the electrical currents gave out,
their energy spent. The rip then collapsed, shrinking into nothingness.
But they had completed their task.

In the place where the disturbance had taken place, grass still smoking,
stood a lone figure. The female visitor gazed around, indifferent to the
cascading stream of rain. A strong gale wind continued to ruffle her blue
and white school uniform which closely resembled a sailor uniform. She
centered her focus on the Tokyo Tower several miles away, it's lights glowing
in the darkness like a beacon.

"This is Tokyo." She smiled as she identified the city. "Good,
I have come to the right place."

She shook her head several times to remove excess rainwater out of her
short, blue hair. She also attempted to smooth out her skirt, but relinquished
a moment later when the wind refused to give up.

Amy Mizuno took a deep breath, releasing it all in one sigh. She turned
around and walked away from Tokyo Tower into the darkness, the rain embracing
her.

Exactly five minutes later, an enormous lighting bolt, measuring at least
twenty-four feet in diameter, streaked out of its birthplace from within
the black clouds. The temperature of the current rivaled that on the surface
of the sun as it aligned itself nearly vertically against the skies and
detonated when it reached its destination.

A seven-story building was blown apart when the bolt struck, igniting dozens
of small fires. Windows within a four-hundred foot radius of the impact
shattered, littering the ground with glass shards.

The Tokyo Fire Department would respond to the freak bolt strike within
minutes, and numerous national bulletins would be issued across the city
to warn residents of a possible second freak bolt.

However, the Bolt never paid a second visit; it had completed its mission.
Certainly, there may be several reconsiderations about the status of the
mission it had undertaken, but Tokyo was no longer of any value to the
Bolt.

The building was now a pile of smoldering debris and drawing a considerable
amount of people who stood gazing at the extent of damage. The firefighters
spent hours trying to contain the 17-alarm blaze, and had it under control
less than fourteen hours after the freak bolt struck.

The glass, however, remained a serious problem. The streets would have
to remain closed for several days until the mess was cleaned up.

Among the crowd of onlookers were several girls. Mostly, the group was
ignored because there was something far more entertaining for people to
watch. They did not realize that the group was there for an entirely different
purpose.

"Will you look at that!" Serena gushed excitedly, annoying Raye,
who was wearing a gray sailor school uniform.

Amy shushed Serena and returned to her work on her compact hand computer.
She ran her fingers across the keyboard, inputting data for the computer
to digest. Several moments later, she frowned, disappointed as it outlined
the results. But she was relieved as well.

"Well, the good news is that Zoycite and Malachite aren't involved."
Amy lifted her head, shutting off her computer. "That was just a perfectly
naturally occurring phenomena that just went a bit out of control."

"Naturally occurring phenomena...? Are you sure?"

Amy looked down at Luna, a black cat who had developed the ability to speak
human language. Luna had a crescent moon symbol on her forehead, which
could be easily mistaken as a scar.

"Yes, I'm sure of it. A lighting bolt is merely an electrical discharge
which accumulates..."

"I know what it is. I just wanted to make sure that Negaverse isn't
involved." Luna replied coolly.

Amy blushed a bit for lecturing Luna, who was once Queen Serenity's assistant.
She put her computer into her school case, and observed her friends' reactions
to the destruction.

Serena, an unusual fourteen year-old girl with blond hair, was continuously
making remarks about the demolished building. She had two balls of hair,
one on either side of her head, which shot out two long strands of thick
pigtails that reached her waist concealed under her school uniform, similar
to Amy's.

On Serena's left was Lita. A good six inches taller than the rest in the
group, the girl with a brown ponytail [on the top of her head] was the
tallest. She was wearing her usual old brown sailor school uniform, mainly
because when she had transferred into Serena's school, there was no school
uniform big enough for her. There were rumors flying around her school
that Lita had been kicked out of her previous school for fighting. Outside
she seemed to be a very tough lady, but somewhere inside she was only a
shy young teenage girl who was simply feeling a bit insecure.

Amy understood Lita's feelings. She had felt the same when she had transferred
into Serena's school, Crossroads Junior High School. She had no friends
and was scorned because of her high intelligence. Until, that is, she met
Serena, who became her best friend as well as Lita's.

Opposite Lita's side was Raye Hino. She was just as different as the others
in the group. She had long black hair that reached her waist, and had a
fiery personality. She was also a priestess who took her practices seriously.
She had seen her mediate for hours straight nonstop without even taking
a break.

"I'm... That does it! I've had it with your useless chatter!"
Raye exploded "You are a complete idiot who can't even walk without
tripping up. You can't even study. Look at you! You're also fat! And y-you..."

Raye faltered as Serena burst into tears when she heard the remark about
her being fat. She tried to make Serena stop crying, but whatever she said
inexplicably made matters worse. Lita sighed and shook her head as she
knelt beside the wailing Serena, prodding her gently.

"Come on, Serena." As Lita spoke to her, she gave Raye a brief
intense glare, signaling that she had gone too far again. "I'm sure
she didn't mean it. Hey, why don't we leave this place and go buy some
ice cream?"

Serena brightened a bit "Ice cream? Really?"

Lita nodded, smiling. Serena eased up a bit, reducing her tears to a mere
trickle before rubbing her eyes dry. When she reopened her eyes, they were
sparkling blue.

"Ice cream, really? Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
She leapt into the air with joy.

Amy returned her friend's smile, briefly glancing down to Luna at her feet..
She had her head down, swaying gently and muttering to herself quietly,
"This can't be..."

Amazingly, nobody in the crowd had noticed the recent event, they were
far too mesmerized by the destruction to spare them a glance. Occasionally,
a person would crane his or her head away from the mess a bit, only to
snap back to the smoldering cement.

Amy felt someone tugging at the sleeve of her uniform. She turned around
to see who it was with a small sound indicating curiosity. Serena was tugging,
asking if she would like to have some ice cream with her.

She looked at Serena's bright blue eyes, and found them to be nearly irresistible.
No wonder it was so difficult to turn down Serena whenever she got into
trouble. She was just so beautiful with those sparkling eyes, and she radiated
innocence which frequently caught people by surprise. But somewhere inside
her, a tiny but forceful voice echoed.

Amy shook her head. "Oh, I would like to, but I have to go home and
start studying for my class tomorrow."

"Again? Doesn't she ever rest?" She heard Lita mutter.

Realizing that convincing Amy was now hopeless, Serena went over to Lita
and began pulling her along, asking if she could have a triple-scoop sundae
with chocolate syrup, a couple of peanuts, and a cherry on top.

Raye rolled her eyes, "There she goes again..."

Serena heard that. She let go of Lita, who nearly tumbled to the cement,
and huffed over to the priestess. Raye prepared herself for some rude remarks.
However, she was caught off-guard when Serena displayed a big chunk of
red cell tissues. Furious at the fact that Serena had done it first, Raye
returned her greeting with a bigger slab of her own tongue that easily
dwarfed Serena's. The girls were soon locked in one of their infamous tongue
duels, creating a considerable amount of noise.

Luna collapsed even further to the ground, covering her head with her paws,
she was terribly embarrassed at the display of childness from Serena and
Raye. Unwilling to become involved in any way, Amy slowly edged away from
the confrontation, bumping into Lita.

"Oh, sorry about that." Amy apologized.

"No problem. Where are you going?"

"I have to go back home to study, remember?"

"Oh, that's right. You know, you oughta take a break from studying
and enjoy life. There's more than just books and studying, you'd be surprised."

Serena and Raye's bickering was beginning to draw several stares, and more
people were beginning to realize that there was something far more entertaining
to watch than a heap of metal and dust. Lita realized that if this continued,
there would be some chatter among the crowd. Sure enough, Lita heard several
people making bets on who would win the quibble.

Amy picked up her school briefcase and smiled at Lita, who returned it
with one of her own, bidding farewell.

"Good-bye! See you tomorrow!" Amy waved to Lita before turning
around, and breaking into a soft jog.

Lita watched her friend slowly recede into the shadows cast by the setting
sun. She sighed as she turned to the battle zone. The confrontation was
getting out of hand. She was afraid that soon they would start pulling
hairs. The brawl also had attracted an uncomfortable number of people,
which were increasing by every second.

Lita started moving, passing Luna who remained silent and immobile. She
was determined to break it up before things really got out of hand.

"All right you girls, that's enough..."

Exhausted, Amy closed her school books and put them aside. She had been
studying ever since she got home, and was starting to see arithmetic equations
everywhere. She sighed, rubbing her eyes in hopes that they would vanish
when she reopened her eyes. They did.

Relived, she turned off her desk lamp, considering several options, and
choose one.

Amy shifted her chair around so she could resume her seemingly endless
task of browsing through the so-called internet, searching for vital data
on the Negaverse, a special zone which theoretically existed somewhere
inside the sixth-dimensional plane, a notion still unheard of by humans.

The beings who dwelt there had physiognomies similar to those of humans,
except that there were many basic structural variations. This did not necessairly
mean that Negaverse and terrans were of the same race. One of the major
differences was that everyone had the ability to harness various forms
of energy.

Another major difference was that the beings were unbelievably evil. They
were bent on the conquest of planet Earth. Amy and her friends, Serena,
Raye, and Lita, fought them often as Sailor Scouts.

Zoycite and Malachite were among the villains from Negaverse. Jadeite and
Nephrite were part of Negaverse, but Nephrite was killed by monsters, or
youmas, created by Zoisite. Jadeite disappeared after his last encounter
with the Scouts and had never been seen again. Also, the Sailors had defeated
every youma the Negaverse had sent to Japan.

Until recently.

Zoisite and Malachite had somehow found out about the Rainbow Crystals.
It was said that if the seven Rainbow crystals were brought together, they
would transform into the Imperium Silver Crystal, a powerful crystal. If
the Negaverse ever got their hands on it, it spelled doom for Earth and
not even the Scouts be would able to stop them.

To make things worse, Negaverse had gotten the first four crystals, and
the mysterious Tuxedo Mask, whom Serena, had fallen in love with, had also
acquired two of the crystals. Despite the fact that he had saved the Scouts
from numerous predicaments, his intentions remained shrouded in mystery.
They were not sure whether or not if Tuxedo Mask was an ally.

That left the Scouts with only one crystal, which left them at a big disadvantage.

This was one of the reasons why Amy was browsing through the data graveyard
ridiculously referred to as the Internet. She knew that the information
on Negaverse and its leader, Queen Beryl, was hidden somewhere. She just
had to find the right path.

Amy sighed as she realized that she had followed yet another false lead.
Most of the information she had obtained from the Internet was either inferior,
obsolete, or false.

She backtracked to her original search pattern and decided to use a different
strategy. As she was about to execute her newly-formed strategy, her computer
beeped as it stumbled across an unusual electronic document. With nothing
to lose, she decided to take a look.

Hmm... seems to be a report on several odd events taking place somewhere
above the Arctic Circle. Abnormal readings of three electromagnetic storms
in the upper atmosphere. Sudden fluctuations in temperatures and complete
blackouts of several major outposts, and unexpected emergence of the Aurora
Borealis. There were several...

Wait a minute. Something was wrong. Amy rechecked the document. Electromagnetic
storms and blackouts of the outposts?

Solar flares from the sun often create electromagnetic storms which can
damage the fragile electronic circuit boards and cause blackouts. A massive
solar flare in 1987 had scrambled the electronic grid across eastern Canada
and created chaos when electronic signals were jammed in northern and eastern
parts of the United States.

However, there were no reports of solar flares, and the sunspot activity
on the sun, which often creates solar flares, had diminished to almost
nothing over the last few years.

"Something odd is going on up there, but what?" Amy mused, as
she continued reading the document.

She was so focused upon the report that she gave out a tiny yelp when her
computer announced an arrival of electronic mail, beeping urgently.

Amy was breathing a bit quickly, and forced herself to relax, reminding
herself that it was only a message. But from who?

Nobody, except her friends whom she had bade good-bye several hours ago,
knew her e-mail address. Even so, her friends lacked the skills and experience
necessary to even operate a computer, let alone to send an electronic message.
Who then? It might be Luna. She certainly had considerable experience in
working with computers, and knew her address.

Amy's face clouded as a thought crossed her mind. Why would she use e-mail?
Why didn't she use one of the communicators that had been issued to every
scout? Better check the mail.

If she had ignored the mail and finished reading the document, she might
have realized that Queen Beryl had set up her base somewhere within the
Arctic Circle, and would have saved the Scouts the countless days of the
grueling search for Beryl.

But tonight, carelessness was on Amy's side, as she closed the document
and eased her attention from the Internet. Within minutes, she located
the mysterious mail which beckoned her to read its contents.

Suspicions arose when she completed her preliminary observation of the
electronic message. There was no sender's name or address anywhere.

The subject heading read:
/Hello/
Amy felt a chill in her spine when she read the subject heading.
This was not from one of her friends; of this she was certain. Amy
conducted another observation, which failed to turn up anything unusual,
except that the mail came alone. There were no follow-ups or attached
files.///

Amy began to feel uneasiness grow inside her as she decided to take
a peek at the mail. Her computer hummed quietly as it processed Amy's request,
displaying the contents of the mail on the monitor.

The mysterious reports from the north ceased to exist. Every thought was
banished from Amy's mind when she read the first sentence. Her brows furrowed
in concretation as she tried to assimilate the mail into her brain.

"What's going on?"

//Amy Mizuno,/
I am very disappointed in you. I had expected better than this. It was
so easy for me to locate you, and bypass your so-called defenses on your
computer. Surely you could've come up with something better than that.

You're nowhere as smart as you think. You're so naive, assuming that nobody
could bypass those ridiculous security codes you had programmed into your
computer, and that your records would be kept confidential.

Yes, I know who you are. I know everything about you and your friends.
Don't bother trying to trace this mail. there's nothing you can do about
it, because I know how you think.
Good night, Amy.
Oh, by the way, I strongly suggest that you should reconsider your strategy.
Searching like that through the Internet is completely useless.///

Amy reeled from the monitor, her head spinning in shock. She just couldn't
believe what she just had read. A few moments passed before she could form
a single cognitive thought.

"Whoever this intruder is, he knows who I am!"

But she just couldn't figure out how could that have happened. Someone
had bypassed the most sophisciated security system she had ever devised,
but how? And more importantly, how much did the intruder learn?

Her breathing had become shallow, her eyes blinking in disbelief. A few
drops of sweat appeared on her forehead while she remained immobile, still
several feet from her computer.

There was a brief, intense humming sound as the monitor blinked off and
then on, snapping Amy out of her trance. The mysterious e-mail had vanished.

"Noooo!" Amy quickly sprang forward at the computer. She began
typing a frantic attempt to recover the lost mail, but no trace remained.
All records of the mail had somehow been destroyed, and wiped hard clean
off her hard drive.

"Impossible! It couldn't have just disappeared!"

Immediately, she re-launched her e-mail software, attempting to search
the database of her ISP.

Every internet server provider, or ISP, keeps a complete record of everyone
who logs into their server. Every Universal Resource Locator, or URL, visited,
e-mail sent and received, files retrieved FTP, Archie and Veronica, and
etc, is recorded and catalogued into their archives, even without the loggers'
knowledge or consent.

Also, those records are kept confidential, and no-one without proper security
clearance or authorization can access them. Those archives were vital to
her, because it contained Amy's logging records.

She simply bypassed the rather ineffective security system and shut off
the intruder detection program. She hated doing things like this, entering
the archives without clearance and tampering with the security system.
No, she shouldn't have done this. But she saw no other choices.

She desperately needed the records in the archives, and there was no way
to retrieve them short of breaking into the system. She had to bypass the
security because she didn't want to be caught committing a crime...no,
several crimes: illegal entry, tampering, and theft of confidental records.

Amy brushed the thoughts aside as she located her records. Her name flashed
across her screen, followed by a warning:

RECORDS OF AMY MIZUNO
UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY PROHIBITED

Amy disregarded the warning, and shattered the electrical locks on
her case, opening it. She sat there, still, as her computer downloaded
the contents of her file, breathing rapidly in fear.

If she had been frightened by the mysterious mail, then what she had discovered
could have given her a heart attack.

Her record was completely empty, save for one file. Every peice of information
her ISP had gathered on her over the past year had been erased.

"How is that possible?" Amy exclaimed, "I thought the files
of the archives were locked against erasure of any kind."

Without warning the lone file opened itself, catching Amy, who was still
recovering from the recent shock, off-guard.

///Amy, I told you not to bother looking for me. I knew you would try
to recover my first mail and trace it to me, so I erased your records clean.
(Oh, yes... it is possible to do so.)
Even if you find my mail, which I seriously doubt you could, it will still
do you no good. I had the mail rerouted through dozens of servers, making
it impossible for you to trace the mail.
Also, you're in deep trouble right now. You have just broken into the Archives
illegally, and shut off the security systems. That's several laws broken,
and if you remain here too long, you will be eventually caught. That's
something I don't want to happen.///

Several tears formed in her eyes as fear began to swell up inside her
at the realization of what she had done. Her body began shake slightly,
unable to contain the despair and fear inside.

Amy moaned. "Oh, no. What have I done? This can't be happening."

Her computer began beeping intensely, demanding her to continue reading.

///So I am going to do you a favor and kick you out of the Archives
before you get caught, which I want to avoid. The security will be reactivated
as well, so don't return to the Archives.
Good luck.
Farewell, Amy.///

Before Amy could react, her connection to the archives was cut abruptly
by the unknown person, sending her computer into a frenzy as its programming
tried to reestablish the connection. Amy quickly put her quivering hands
into action, shaking off the shock.

The unknown intruder was right; the security had reactivated itself
when her connection had been terminated. She didn't want to bypass them
again. She was lucky the first time, and she didn't want to risk a second
attempt. Who knows if the unknown intruder had also beefed up the security
system as well?

She gave up and withdrew from her e-mail software. She was too scared to
notice that her computer had kicked in to erase the trail she had left
behind into the ISP connection.

By the time Amy had finally shut off her computer, she was shaking uncontrollably.
She struggled to control her body and forced herself from the desk over
to her bed nearby She stumbled to the floor repeatedly, as she failed to
control her body.

Amy managed to reach her bed, covered with aquamarine sheets and pillows,
and crawled upon it, still shaking. At this point, she lost complete control
and began weeping. She had never felt this vulnerable or alone.

Her shaking steadily got worse as her weeping slowly turned into sobbing.

"Please tell me it isn't true. Please..."

Dozens of images of the unknown intruder, each scarier than the previous
flashed across her mind and left her even more afraid.

Amy forced her eyes, still wet from tears, open and stared outside her
room window at the white stars, which seemed to return her gaze with sorrowful
blinking.

It just was too much for Amy to handle as she burst into open tears. They
streaked across her smooth pale cheeks, already moistened by recent weeping.
She hugged herself, still shaking uncontrollably.

Her crying did not subside for a long time until she had cried herself
to sleep, her body long since exhausted from shaking.

* * * *

A hand flew over the keyboard, pressing the shut-off switch for the computer
terminal. The owner of the hand was smiling, pleased with the recent events.
The first phase had been completed, and there had been no response from
the other end since the entry at the Archives.

The woman wondered about how her victim was handling things after realizing
that she was completely helpless. It would be certainly difficult on her.
Poor girl, not yet in high school.

She seriously doubted that Amy had matured enough to handle this kind of
situation, and wondered how much impact her actions would have upon the
girl.

Suddenly, the woman frowned as she reconsidered her strategy. Maybe she
shouldn't do this. It would be too much on fragile Amy; she might snap.

Then suddenly, she hardened her resolve.

"No. I have no choice. I'm sorry, I have to do this." She said
aloud, mainly to reassure herself that it was true.

She knew her victim well. Amy may lose herself a bit, but she will not
snap, no matter what.

She knew the reason why she had to do her mission, however cruel it would
be upon both her and Amy.

Unhappy with the decision she'd made, she rose, gazing across her simple
room in a cheap apartment. Her room contained only a bed, desk and the
computer which she had just recently used. She also had a couple of clean
school uniforms from Crossroads Junior High School.

It was rather simple to get the uniform. Nobody at the school even tried
to stop her. She just walked right inside, requested several additonal
uniforms, and came back with a fresh bundle of them. The sheer simplicity
of this task had spooked her a bit, but she didn't mind.

Moments later, she found herself at one of the windows in her room, drawing
the curtains apart. She lifted the glass window, and leaned on the window
sill, unaware of a slight breeze which ruffled her short blue hair a bit.

"I never wanted to do this in the first place, Amy. I would rather
that we become friends instead. Unlike you, I have nobody to turn to for
help." A single tear appeared below her eyes, and she procced to wipe
it away.

"Unfortunately, the cirumistances had made it impossible for that
to happen. I'm sorry about this. Whatever happens, I hope you can forgive
me."

She let her gaze linger upon the stars as they twinkled outside. Her eyes
closed for a moment as she let out her breath quietly. After what seemed
like an eternity, Amy Mizuno lowered the window and pulled the curtains
shut.

* * * *

"NO!"

The tranquillity of the morning was shattered by Amy's sudden cry as she
woke up abruptly. She sat upright, her eyes wide open, and breathing rapidly.
She did not realize that her hands were squeezing so hard that they were
turning white.

Amy gave the room she was inside a long, slow examination, still unwilling
to believe what she was seeing. She blinked her eyes several times before
the truth dawned upon her.

"A dream...?" Amy let out slowly, somewhat hesitant to accept
the proof. It was so real, she had felt pain, or did she imagine it?

She lay back on her bed, realizing that her forehead was wet with moisture.
She wiped it off with her arm, noticing her pale hands, and winced as pain
shot throughout her hands as blood rushed in to revive them when she unclenched
her palms.

"Amy? Are you all right?" Amy's mother peeked into her room,
"I heard you cry out."

She gave out a strangled cry when she saw her daughter, her hands covering
her mouth. She went over to Amy, her hand resting on her forehead. "Oh,
you look awful. What happened?"

"I'm okay, mom. Really. It was only a nightmare." Amy protested,
but deep inside her, she knew better.

She shuddered as an image from her nightmare flashed across her mind before
it vanished into nothingness. Nothing was okay with her, and there was
no way in the world she would want to go through *that* nightmare again.
It was so horrible...

"I see, it must have been, your brow is all wet. Are you sure you
feel okay? I heard you crying last night, and when I went to help you,
you were already asleep. Maybe you should stay in bed..." Amy quickly
rejected the idea.

"Well, you do look okay now," Her mother admitted, but was a
bit persistent. "I really think you should stay in bed. I'm a doctor
after all..."

The concerned mother added, "I want you to understand that I really
love you very much, and I want to help you."

Amy nodded, "I understand, mom. But it's nothing, really..."

Still unconvinced, Amy's mother left. Amy felt ashamed for hiding the truth
from her own mother, but she didn't want her to know. Her alternate identity
of Sailor Mercury had to remain a secret for as long as possible.

She was startled when she realized that she was still wearing her school
uniform, albeit now completely wrinkled, from last night. She sighed as
she proceed to remove it so she could take a shower.

A minute after Amy left to shower, the computer, which had sat with the
power off, on her desk, suddenly activated itself and started humming quietly.
The monitor began spitting out garbled lines of useless numbers as the
computer ran the automatic diagnostics program.

Two minutes later, the program concluded that everything was functioning
properly and proceeded to display the recent electronic mail that had come
in a few minutes ago.

"Ahh, that shower was just exactly what I needed," Amy returned
fully clothed in her clean blue skirt and white blouse with a blue collar
and a red bow tied loosely around her neck, which made up her school uniform.
She did not realize that her computer was beeping urgently until after
she had put on her black patent shoes, and picked up her school case on
the desk.

"Wha... funny, I don't recall turning my computer on, What is this?
An e-mail..." Amy's voice trailed off as she read it, her eyes widening.

"No, this can't be happening... This can't be real!"

Amy collapsed to the floor as the nightmares from her sleep returned, flooding
her with terror and dread.

///Good morning, Amy.
I trust that you had pleasant dreams last night.
I am sorry about this, Sailor Mercury, but I have no choice. Yes, I know
that you are one of the Sailor Scouts, Sailor Mercury, or would you rather
go by Amy instead?
No matter. I want you to understand that there is nothing you can do about
this. But I have to admit, you surprised me with your stunt at the Archives
last night. That was a rather foolish thing to do. You could have been
caught.
I thought that you, as a Sailor Scout, would not do such a thing. Then
again, desperate times calls for desperate measures.
But this no longer matters. I want you to understand that I know who you
are. Oh, don't worry, I assure you that your identity will remain secret.
I think you'd better hurry and get to school, or you will be late.
Have a nice day.///

Amy was shaking again, trying to convince herself that the mail wasn't
real, but some electrical malfunction or something.

Just as it had happened last night, the computer blinked off then on, removing
the evidence of the mysterious mail. But this time, Amy did not move. She
knew that all traces of the mail would be gone. She remained silent for
a long time.

She was starting to shake more violently, and it took nearly every ounce
of her willpower to steady her body. She couldn't afford to go to school
like this. She glanced over to her clock and nearly gave out a shout when
she saw how late it was. She hadn't realized that she had slept in late.
Grabbing her school case, she ran out of her room, hoping that she would
make it to school on time.

* * * *

"Amy? Amy Mizuno? AMY!"

Amy snapped her head up from her desk, instantly alert for any trouble.
She realized that it was only her teacher calling for her. "Yes, Miss
Hanikyo?"

Miss Hanikyo sighed, but was concerned about Amy. It was the fourth time
she had to call out for her attention.

It had shaken her up when Amy came in the class late this morning. Amy
was usually one of the first students to come in. But she had dismissed
it, assuming that some accident had slowed her down. But then she became
a bit more concerned when she realized that Amy was being distracted lately.

"Are you sure that you are okay? You don't look good. In fact, I think
you should go to the nurse's office." Miss Hanikyo suggested.

Amy shook her head gently. "I'm feeling okay, thanks, Miss Hanikyo."

She wondered how she looked to others. A bit frayed, perhaps. She had come
in late to her class for the first time that she could remember in ages,
and she could hear several students whispering behind her back:

"Can you believe it? Amy's late!"

"This never happened before!"

"Hey, Amy does *not* look good..."

During class, she was unable to put out of her mind the strange and threatening
mail she had received this morning. Someone knew who she really was, that
she was one of the Scouts. That meant whoever this person was, it was highly
likely that they would know about the other Scouts's identities, which
would put her friends in danger.

"I hope Serena's okay," Amy wondered. She hadn't seen her friend
when she came in late; Serena was usually late to school. She also hoped
that Lita and Raye were doing fine.

Without warning, a nightmare from her sleep quickly resurfaced in her mind's
eye and vanished as quickly as it had appeared, catching her by surprise.

Amy heard her teacher calling out her name through the clouds in her mind.
"Yes, Miss Hanikyo?" Amy almost slurred it out, but managed to
make it clear.

"Amy? Good, you're still with us. Do you think you can answer this
question? I mean, are you up to it?" asked Miss Hanikyo.

Amy was having difficulty trying to focus her thoughts upon the inscription
on the chalkboard. It was an algebraic formula that found the roots of
a cubic equation. Now, using the same formula provided, what is the root
of 729?

No matter how hard she tried to concentrate, she just couldn't figure out
the answer. This was becoming increasingly frustrating for her, and she
realized that virtually every student was watching her.

What's going on? She knew that she already had solved this simple problem
several times over, yet here she couldn't even figure out how to begin
to solve it. She had to come up with an answer, or Miss Hanikyo would suspect
that something was wrong with her. She was forced to give a wild guess,
based on her now-vague knowledge of previous Algebra lessons. "The
root is...65?"

The oxygen levels in the class dropped slightly as everyone took a deep,
shocked breath. Even Miss Hanikyo was shocked. It took her nearly a minute
before she could reply, "I'm... afraid to say that you are..."
She had to swallow and clear her throat. The voice came out raspy, "Wrong."

Amy, her head still spinning, staggered up, slurring out the words, "Miss
Hanikyo, all of sudden, I don't feel good. May I be excused to the nurse's
office?"

"Of course, Amy. I think you need some rest--" She was cut off
when Amy suddenly collapsed to the floor. She was relieved a moment later
when one of the students helped Amy up into a standing position.

"Suzzie, why don't you help Amy to the nurse's office?" She asked
the student, who nodded.

"Here, let me help you, Amy." Suzzie helped Amy up as her legs
gave out under her.

"Thanks, Suzzie." Amy had to lean on the girl for support since
her legs had refused to cooperate.

With Suzzie helping her, Amy left the class, but not before she heard the
sudden, slow chatter between the students.

It would eventually spread throughout the school until everyone knew about
her. This would hurt her reputation badly, but right now, she just didn't
care. A tear formed in her eyes, and streaked down her cheek.

She just couldn't believe how badly her day had turned out.

* * * *

A lighting bolt flashed across the skies, it's thunder was deafening. The
rain came in torrents, creating numerous miniature rivers upon the muddy
ground.

Her blue and white uniform had been ripped in various places, exposing
her flesh, which remained intact. The uniform was also deeply stained with
dried blood. But Sailor Mercury didn't care. She only wanted to get out
of there.

Completely drenched, she ran through the dense forest, trying to escape
from the horror which pursed her. The fear inside her was amplified by
every step she took, and by every thunderclap that rang thru her ears to
the point of pain.

"No, no... Oh, god, please...don't let him get me. Please...no."
Mercury cried as she dodged the obstacles in her path. She had absolutely
no idea how she got into such a terrible place. All she could recall was
the pure terror she had just experienced.

***** Somehow she had ended up in the middle of a forest, and save for
tiny wisps of moonlight, it was nearly pitch dark. She didn't like the
way the place looked. It was completely silent, as if a huge vaccuum had
sucked out all of the sounds from the place. The trees seemed to be reaching
out for her. The rain only helped make the place appear more sinster.

Trying to find a way out of the dreadful place, she had stumbled upon a
body. She had disliked the thought of being with a dead body, but she felt
compelled to find out who the deceased person was. To her horror, it was
none other than Lita.

Her green and white Sailor Jupiter sailor suit had been torn in many places,
and she had been stabbed in the stomach several times. Blood was everywhere,
and Mercury's hands were covered with it when she tried to raise Lita up.
The body was still warm, which indicated that she had been murdered no
more than twenty minutes ago.

She realized that when she had moved Lita's body, she had uncovered another
body beneath her. It was Raye's, the temple priestess Amy had known for
so long.

Raye, as Sailor Mars, also had been stabbed in the stomach. But she also
had numerous long slashes across her legs and arms. When Mercury tried
to shift Mars's body aside, she saw that Raye had her throat slit wide
open, and blood was still gurgling out slowly .

It was too much for Mercury. She immediately retched, and did not recover
for a long time. In fact, she never got a chance to recover.

As she retched, she recalled memories of her dead friends, and wept. She
was stricken with grief over the loss of two of her dearest friends she
ever had.

There was a sudden rustle behind Mercury, and she spun around. She was
furious at being caught so woefully unaware. Cursing herself for her carelessness,
she could taste the bile that remained in her mouth, which only added to
her nausea.

She saw a body falling. Without thinking, Mercury sprang into action, catching
the body mid-air, and gave out a long scream when she realized what she
was holding. Caught off-guard, she crashed into the ground with the body.
She remained there, immobile, staring at the body, wide-eyed.

Her friend, Serena, also known as Sailor Moon, lay dead in her arms. Her
beautiful face had been badly bruised and beaten up. She also had numerous
cuts all over her body, and the bruises on her neck gave the indication
that she had been strangled to death.

Mercury had nearly fainted, gasping for breath. Tears fell from her cheeks
and splashed upon Serena's face, which was starting to turn blue. Deep
inside her, everything fell apart, unable to cope with the sudden deaths
of her closest friends. She moaned, trying to deny the harsh truth which
had manifested itself in her eyes.

"Heh, what's wrong, Sailor Mercury?"

Mercury jerked her head towards the source of the voice. A man stood on
a small rock ledge no more than three meters away from her. Instinctively,
she sprang to a standing position, her arms raised in self-defense.

"You! It was you who killed them, wasn't it?" Mercury shouted,
unable to contain a tiny trace of fear inside her.

"Yes, that's right." The shrouded figure raised his arm, and
something glinted in the weak moonlight that managed to puncture through
the clouds. It was a six-inch long dagger, still dripping with her friends'
blood. "They weren't much trouble. I wish they had put up more of
a struggle, though; it would have been much more fun for me.

"I hope you can do better than your friends, Mercury."

With that, the man leaped and covered the distance between him and Mercury
in less than a quarter of a second, catching her by surprise. He jabbed
the dagger at Mercury, tearing the fabric of her uniform skillfully, not
piercing her flesh. He then dodged her feeble attempts to fight back.

Mercury realized, to her horror, that he was toying around with her. His
speed was beyond human, and she couldn't land a blow upon him. She attempted
her Mercury Bubble Blast attack, and was shocked to discover that she could
not utilize it at all.

More rips appeared on her uniform as her screams went unheeded. Being one
of the least powerful scouts, she was helpless against the madman's relentless
attack. She had only one choice left, and took it. She ran.

***** The blue-haired scout ran through the dark forest, screaming in pure
terror, branches and bushes raking out at her.

She could hear the heavy laughter as her assailant closed the distance
behind her, despite her fear-augmented speed. The rain continued to pelt
her unmercifully, and turned the soil into mud, making her escape more
difficult.

A branch suddenly appeared out of nowhere and swatted her across the face,
temporarily blinding her. Pain burst through her eyes as Mercury squeezed
them shut. Unable to see where she was going, she tripped over the tangled
roots that covered the soil.

Wiping the mud off her face, she tried to get up. She felt a burning sensation
in her left ankle and she crashed into the mud again. She realized that
she must have sprained her ankle when she tripped over the roots.

Her blood turned cold when she heard the foreboding steps drawing closer.
Unwilling to have the murderer lay another hand upon her, she tried to
hop away.

Mercury did not get far when the man caught up with her. He took her down
with a tackle, and they both rolled around in the mud as she continued
to scream.

Her scream was cut abruptly when he forcefully slammed Mercury back against
the ground, knocking the breath out of her, and pinned her to it as well.
The assailant then hovered his dagger over her wide blue eyes, and proceeded
to draw a tiny stream of blood on her left cheek.

It was just too much for her. She began thrashing around violently in an
attempt to escape, screaming at the man to let her go. She tried to claw
at his face, even as she contiuned to kick him.
Furious, her adversary slapped Mercury's face hard, drawing tears. He then
caught hold of her throat and began squeezing. With the knife in his other
hand, the man lowered it until it drew another cut on her face.

Mercury began to gasp for breath, her chest heaving up and down. She tried
to yank the thug's hands off her neck, but her strength was fading rapidly.
Her vision began to blur, making it difficult to discern the man's movements.

Last thing she saw before she closed her eyes was the man rising his dagger
in preparation to strike. Mercury then lost consciousness.

The brief, intense pain quickly followed.

* * * *

"No!"

Mekena Fuikado heard Amy's sudden cry and ran over into the adjoining room
where she slept. She saw that she was sitting upright, breathing rapidly.

"Miss Mizuno, are you okay? What happened?" Mekena asked the
obviously frightened girl.

"I..."

"Amy, please tell me, I'm Mekena, your nurse. You have been having
pretty hard times lately. I can't help you if you don't tell me what's
bothering you."

"Do you need a glass of water? Okay, I will go and get you one. I'll
be right back." Reassuring Amy, Mekena got up and left.

Amy watched her leave, and then let out the long deep breath she had been
holding. She was shaking again, and felt several beads of sweat on her
forehead.

It was the same dream she had had in the morning. She shook her head sadly,
unable to relax. She couldn't help but wonder if there was any connection
between the mysterious mail she had received last night and the nightmares
which seemed to emerge more frequently.

The pain, it was so real...

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden ringing. Still a bit dazed, she
scanned the room for the source, and realized that it was the phone. It
continued to ring, and Amy wondered whether to answer the phone, or let
her nurse come answer it.

Her body took the decision away from her as she stood up. Her body began
taking steps towards the phone, despite her protests, and raised an arm
picking up the phone. Amy knew she shouldn't do it, but something inside
her told her to answer it. "Hello?"

"Is this you, Amy Mizuno?" a feminine voice spoke into her ears.

All Amy could reply was, "Huh?"

"Oh, good. Did you enjoy your nap? Judging from your appearance, I
don't think so." A small sound followed, as if the voice was harboring
pity.

Amy thought the voice sounded awfully familiar, but just couldn't place
it. She asked the caller who she was. There was a long silence at the other
end when she asked.

"What? You mean you haven't caught on?" The voice finally went
on, and carried disbelief. "Oh, Amy... I can't believe that you still
haven't figured it out. You should have known after the last mail..."

"You were the one who sent those e-mail I've received?" Amy interrupted,
shocked. Silence followed again. When the female came on the phone, she
sounded upset and agiated.

"Of course I was the one who sent them! You don't know who I am."
The last remark wasn't a question. "Oh, that's too bad...

"You see, I had hoped that you would know the truth before we met.
It would be much easier for you, believe me."

Amy's eyes widened at the mention of a meeting, "You mean you will
meet me...?" "Yes, that's right." The female on the other
side confirmed, "We will meet at Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden tomorrow
at ten o'clock in the morning. Since tomorrow is Saturday, you won't have
to worry about school. Oh, yes, don't even think about bringing your friends...or
should I call them Sailor Scouts?"

Amy stood upright, not believing what she had just heard. The voice continued,
"Yes, your friends, Serena, Lita, and Raye. I just met them recently
at lunch time. Pretty nice friends, aren't they? I envy you for the friends
you have.

Pain pulsed around her head as Amy opened her eyes. She was immediately
blinded by bright lights, and realized that there were three, no, four
shadows surrounding her. A thought crossed her mind, and she quickly tried
to climb out of the bed. A pair of strong arms quickly pinned her down,
and she began screaming, "No, please let me go! Get away from me,
you monster! Let me go!! NO!"

"Amy! It's me, Lita! Get a grip on yourself!"

Upon hearing the words, she quickly ceased her struggle as if she had ceased
to function, and blinked stupidly at the face with a brown ponytail above
her. "Lita?"

"Are you all right, Amy?" Lita asked, releasing her friend.

Serena then poked her head into Amy's face, causing her head to jerk backwards,
"You're awake? Oh, I'm so glad! You had me worried!"

She then quickly hugged her friend. After a minute, Raye had to yank her
off Amy so she would have some room. Lita replied, "We heard that
you had fainted in the nurse's office, and we came over to help you out."

"You were out cold," Raye added, "And we had to carry you
over to your home."

Just then Amy realized why the surroundings had seemed so familiar. She
was amazed at how quickly she had forgotten about her own home. She rose
from her bed, still in her school uniform, and assumed a sitting position.

"What's going on? The nurse told me that you had some case of over-exhaustion,
right?" Lita shook her head sadly, "I told you that you should
stop studying so hard! Sooner or later, the stress would catch up to you,
and look at you now!"

"No, that's not it. It's something else..." A tear formed in
her eyes, and she began to tremble slightly."Oh, God, you have no
idea what happened to me."

Raye caught it, and determined that it was serious. However, Serena had
failed to catch it. Still being a clumsy and undependable little girl,
she kept on inquring Amy about what happened. Raye became furious at her,
yanking Serena backwards and yelling, "Serena, shut up! Can't you
see that this is serious?"

Ignoring the little quibble, Luna leapt upon Amy's bed from her place on
a nearby table and settled herself before the frightened teenager. "Amy,
please tell us what happened. You have been acting rather... unsteadily.
What happened to cause you this much trouble?

"You see," Amy finally said, "It began last night, when
I was doing my work on my computer, searching the internet, when I had
received an e-mail..."

Amy continued on for nearly an hour, often interrupted by her violent trembling,
crying, and coughs. She told everything, including the nightmares and the
mysterious phone call she had received earlier, but she chose not to reveal
her arranged meeting with this mysterious intruder to her friends. A phrase
reminded her to keep silent, "Come alone..."

She knew that if she told her friends, they would follow her, no matter
what. As Lita would say, "Screw whoever this person is."

So she deliberately avoided the subject of the planned meeting, and wrapped
her story with a tear.

"I apologize about what happened an hour ago. When I woke up I thought
you were some madmen who was going to kill me or rape me, or something
like that." Finished, she turned to the group, which remained silent.

"So you have absolutely no idea who this intruder is, correct?"
Raye finally said, still a bit queasy after hearing about Amy's nightmare.

Amy nodded, "That's right, but I think my...our intruder is female."

Luna was obviously depressed, shaking her head, "This is not good.
Someone already knows about our identities, and yet for some reason, has
not chosen to use it to his/her advantage."

Amy couldn't help but point out that the unknown female had already met
Raye, Lita, and Serena. But the trio protested, they had not met anyone
during lunch that they didn't recognize.

"Uh, maybe it was one of our friends at school?" Serena suggested,
only to be verbally attacked by Raye for coming up with such a stupid idea.

"Actually, Serena has a good point." Luna admitted. Raye stopped
her accusations and blinked, not believing what Luna had just said. Serena
actually had a good point?

"Evidently, this woman must have been cleverly disguised, posing as
a normal student." Luna pondered this, and turned to the frightened
Amy. "Do you still have a copy of that e-mail you received?"

"No, it's gone. I've already performed a diagnostics program on the
computer, and it claimed that no such mail had been received, let alone
existed." Amy shook her head, scattering few droplets of tears into
the air.

Luna pressed, "Are you certain that the program wasn't infected by
a virus? Maybe..."

"IT'S GONE, GONE!" Amy practically shouted and everyone winced
as her words shook their eardrums. "I even broke into the Archives
of my ISP, only to find that every record on me had been wiped hard clean!"

Amy was becoming very agitated. Her friends tried to reassure her, but
she shook them off. Luna, who was not used to handling an agitated Amy
(as such had never happened before), tried to explain that she knew how
Amy was feeling. It only made things worse.

"Can't you see that I have broken several laws, and if the police
finds out, I'll be in big trouble!" Fear suddenly emerged in her voice
and she began to thrash out, trying to get out of her room, only to be
restrained by the powerful Lita.

Lita stared deeply into her friend's blue eyes, wide with fear. Poor little
girl, she has gone over the edge. she thought.

Amy went on, screaming, "What about my mom? If she ever finds out,
I'll be in really big trouble- I don't know what will happen then!"
Amy continued to scream, thrashing out madly, despite Lita's incredible
strength. The others could only stare at Amy as she struggled to escape
Lita's grasp. They even saw her punch Lita several times. It went on for
several minutes until she finally calmed down, but refused to stop struggling.

"Something's wrong. We're definitely missing something..." Now
that Amy had mellowed out a bit, Luna decided to ask her a question.

"Amy, when did you go visit the nurse?"

"When I went to see the nurse? I was excused for the nurse's office
shortly before the second class began. Why?" Amy gasped, out of breath.

"Now, that's funny..." Luna began, and Raye asked her what she
meant by that. Meanwhile, Serena, who was increasingly becoming concerned
about Amy, asked her immobile friend why didn't she tell her about it at
lunch time if things were so serious last night.

"Lunch time... What are you talking about? I was in the nurse's office
at that time."

"Something's definitely going on." Lita, who held Amy down, replied.
"You see; we had lunch with you, and you were feeling good. Yet you
claimed that you had been in the nurse's office all day. What's going on?"

"Me?" was all Amy could say.

Serena nodded, "We were having lunch at our usual place, you know,
the one with a nice tree over at the West Hall, and you came by. You looked
fine to me, and we had fun!"

"So, that's it! That's the problem!" Luna suddenly spoke out.
Her words, however, were lost when Amy began screaming as intense pain
coursed throughout her. She did not realize that it vanished a moment later.
She continued to scream, all memory of the recent pain long gone, and went
throwing yet another fit. Her words were incoherent and simply didn't make
any sense.

Unlike the last time, she just screamed. Caught off guard by Amy's sudden
outburst, Lita's strength nearly faltered, but returned just in time to
restrain Amy. Raye rushed in to provide assistance, while Serena stood
where she was, dumbfounded. She didn't understand what was going on.

"No. it can't be! No, NO! NO! I don't know what to do!" Amy continued
to vent out her frustration for a long time.

Then without warning, Amy ceased her struggles and broke into tears, shocking
everyone whom had been used to seeing her as a quiet, shy schoolgirl. Lita
wasn't sure how to handle this, so she released her and backed away. Raye
did the same.

Amy was crying openly, tears coming out rapidly now, as she began whimpering.
Her body also was contoured by violent shaking. Unsure about what to do,
her friends stood still, looking at each other.

* * *

Serena still felt uncomfortable about leaving Amy alone, but Luna had reassured
her that she would be all right. Since Amy's mother had to leave for an
urgent medical assginment sometime after Amy had left for school, she was
currently unaware about her daughter's condition. Because of this, Lita,
agreed to take care of Amy, while they were gone.

Raye had returned to her temple in hopes that her sacred fire would reveal
the unknown intruder that plagues Amy. Meanwhile, Serena had to go back
to her home, or her parents would freak out if she didn't come in before
dark.

"Luna, I have never seen Amy like this before. It must have been hard
on her." Serena spoke to Luna, her concern could be clearly heard
in her voice.

Luna nodded, "I know, I haven't, either. I hope she will be okay in
the morning."

Serena gazed over at the setting sun which lay shrouded by blood-red clouds,
and gasped when she realized how late it was. She broke into a run, Luna
trailing behind her. Her parents would be furious.

Unaware of the fact that they were being spied upon, Serena and Luna ran
towards the house of Tsukino family.

* * * *

"Yes, off you go to your home, Serena. It wouldn't do any good to
have Serena be late to home, would it, eh, Luna?"

The sunlight glinted off the pair of convex lenses inside the binoculars
as Amy lowered them. Things had been going well for her, but bad for her
friend Amy Mizuno who now lay asleep inside her hose, closely guarded by
Lita.

She felt terribly sorry for Mizuno, for what she had gone through. All
the e-mails, calls, and the nightmares. She could only imagine the nightmares
Amy had gone through because of her.

But she had no choice. She had been given no choice in the first place.

Amy suddenly doubled over in pain. It vanished as quickly as it came. Gasping
for air, she braced herself against a metal pipe that strutted out of the
cement railing, and kneeled to the roof.

The pain kept on returning, and the time between each interval shrunk rapidly.
Eventually it would be too much for her to bear.

This was one of the reasons why she had to do her mission. If she completed
her mission, the pain would cease forever. Of course, she would have to
leave behind a vital part of her, but the price would be worth it. Wouldn't
it be?

She felt that she knew the answer, and didn't like it.

But if she failed...

She forced the negative thoughts aside, for she knew what would happen
if she failed. She must complete her mission at all costs, no matter what.
She had to.

Tomorrow, at ten o'clock, at the Garden, Amy and she would meet face-to-face,
at last. Everything would come to the conclusion then, and there would
be only one outcome.

She knew that Amy would come alone. After all, she knew Amy as well as
she did herself, and better. She, as well as Amy, could not afford to have
her friends intervene in their meeting, and get hurt. She cared about them
too much to allow that.

Amy began to cry a little. She hated herself already for what she would
do in the morning. "I'm sorry, Amy..."

She silently wished Amy good luck during their confrontation the following
day, wiping away her tears. Amy would certainly need it, considering the
things she had gone through recently.

Amy recovered her binoculars. The lens had been shattered. She cursed her
luck; she had dropped it when the pain struck.

Struggling to a standing position, she watched the sun set peacefully into
the ground behind the Tokyo Tower, its red lights flashing on and off for
all eternity.

* * * *

Johnny Fiserman was having a hard time trying to figure out how to find
an embassy from his country. He flipped his Tokyo map over several times.
His back to the rising sun, he looked over his map of Tokyo again and again,
trying to make sense of it.

"Whose idea was it not to put up street signs around here, anyway?"
he muttered. "Or better yet, why in the world did I choose to come
here instead of staying back home in Los Angeles?"

He had no idea what he had gotten himself into when a little girl with
two braids appeared outside his door. She had claimed that she was part
of some organization which was committed to helping encourage US involvement
in international matters. He would later recall that the US was already
involved with major foreign countries such as those in Europe, China, and
Japan, to one degree or another.

But during that time, he just could not resist the little girl, standing
outside his door, alone (Hey, what was she doing out in the middle of Los
Angeles alone?). So he gave her a few dollars as a donation, and filled
out a form given to him by the girl. It later turned out to be an entry
for a drawing contest sponsored by the same organization.

Next thing he knew, he had won a pair of tickets to visit Tokyo. He tried
to ask his girlfriend to go along, but she was too busy. In a pretty short
time, he ran out of female candidates to come to Tokyo with him, so he
went alone.

It had proved to be a mistake for him to go in the first place. He barely
knew anything about Japan, let alone Tokyo itself. Several weeks before
the flight, he attempted to study the Japanese kanji writing, or was it
kana? He also tried to speak the country's language, with varying success.

So, here he was, in the middle of a city with no street names or any way
for him to identify the place he was in now. He just couldn't figure out
the kanji/kana in the city map he had been given by a passing man. Sooner
or later he would have to ask somebody for help, and so he scanned the
surrounding area.

"Whoa! A girl with blue hair?" Johnny blinked several times as
he spotted a passerby, convinced that it was only an illusion. The theory
was later discredited after a careful observation of the girl. "Must
be a dye...wait, she's coming closer. No, the color's too natural to be
a dye. I must be dreaming! I've never heard of naturally occurring blue
hair."

An idea struck him as he folded his map and waved at her, asking for help
in his limited Japanese, hoping that his American accent wouldn't show,
"Excuse me, miss, do you think you could help me? I think I'm lost."

She must be only thirteen, maybe a year older, Johnny thought as the girl
stopped in her tracks, inclining her head at him in confusion. She was
wearing a white blouse with a blue collar tied by a red bow in the front,
and blue skirt. He decided that she must be a student from some school...but
what was she doing out here, away from school? Oh, that's right- today's
Saturday. No school.

His attempts to communicate with the girl ended in failure, so he decided
to try another method.

"Do you speak English? You know, ingles, anglais..." He continued
to repeat the phrase in every foreign language he could recall. The girl
seemed to be even more confused, and spoke in Japanese. He couldn't understand
a thing she was saying until he recognized a term, "Tokyo Tower."

Johnny was so relieved that he inadvertely replied loudly and slowly, clutching
his hands and holding them in the air as if he had won a some kind of prize.
"Finally! About time I understood her!"

The girl was so startled that she took a step backwards. He realized his
mistake and quickly tried to cover it up. "Uh... I'm sorry, that must
be the place where I can find someone who speaks English around here."
He was so thrilled that he could barely restrain his excitement. He kept
on nodding his head, slapping his hands several times. The female student
seemed to be happy, too. She was smiling, talking cheerfully.

He then spoke in jumbled Japanese, nodding, "Miss, could you please
tell me if I could find an embassy from my country, America, at this tower
building?"

The girl pointed towards a tall, smaller, steel version of Eiffel Tower,
a couple of miles north-west. Johnny thanked the girl, and watched her
bow, smiling. She turned around and began walking south.

"What kind of gesture was that?" he wondered. He also couldn't
help but notice something about her. Her expression of happiness seemed
to be masking something. He could tell- he had plenty of experience in
reading people's faces back in LA.

She was feeling exhausted, a bit stressed out. She was also hiding the
pain of disorder and sadness inside her.

Johnny wondered what could have happened to such a pretty cute girl like
her. He watched her pick up pace until she vanished into the morning crowds.

Shrugging, he reopened his map and began walking towards the tall heap
of metal called Tokyo Tower, in the fleeting hope of finding an embassy
where English was spoken.

Pausing momentarily, she glanced over her shoulders and saw the man reading
the map again.

"Such an odd person," Amy thought. Whoever this gentleman was,
he certainly wasn't from anywhere in Japan and had a strange accent. Must
be a foreign tourist, probably American.

She had heard so much about the United States, about how long their government
system had lasted (over two hundred years), and had weathered through countless
challenges. It was one of the best systems in the world, and dozens of
countries, including Japan (despite the fact that it had been forced to
do so) during the aftermath of the World War II, had modeled their government
systems after them.

Maybe she could pay the States a visit for a while. Sure, why not?

But she had no time right now, she had to reach the Garden by ten. She
hoped that she had done the right thing when the American tourist had asked
for the directions to several tourist attractions, such as the Tokyo Tower.

She inspected the reflection of herself on the glass window display. Her
uniform was a bit dirty and her bow was out of place. She adjusted it,
while trying to smooth out her hair, which was a total mess. She had no
time to take a shower and change into approiate clothing. She had to make
it to her meeting at the Garden.

Amy wondered what would be going on right now, at her home. Lita would
have woken up by now, and called the others when she discovered that she
had snuck away out of the bedroom window. She hated doing this, escaping
without telling her friends where she was headed, especially Serena. Luna
would certainly scold her, but she didn't care.

She heard a beeping sound, and realized that it was her communicator. She
should've known that her friends would have realized that she was still
carrying it and attempt to contact her with it. She removed her pink communicator
from her skirt pocket and deactivated it. That would undoubtedly freak
out Luna.

No matter what, they must not know where she was going. Her mysterious
intruder that she was supposed to meet today might decide to use them as
hostages, thus putting her at a disadvantage. Or she might try and hurt
them.

Amy felt a brief chill as she complemented the possibility. She would rather
die than allow her friends to come to any harm.

She glanced over to a nearby clock. Fifteen minutes to ten. Got to hurry.

The pedestrians nearby did not spare the blue-haired female student a glance
as she picked up her pace and then broke into a run. The citizens of Tokyo
went by, minding their business while one lone girl ran, for all her worth,
towards her doom.

* * * *

It was already midday, and Amy was getting hungry. To make things worse,
things weren't going well for her. She had only recently transferred from
another junior high school, Maysabki Junior High? Or was it Omokatyki?

She shook her head. She couldn't even remember the name. She had stayed
there only briefly, mainly because of her mother. Her mother was one of
the most brilliant doctors in Tokyo, but had to be transferred often. For
some reason, her previous work never satsified her, and she wanted to be
able to serve her patients better. So she switched hospitals repeatedly,
searching for one better suited to assist her in her operations.

This created a major problem for Amy Mizuno. Whenever her mother transferred
to another hospital, she had to be relocated to another school. Even so,
she spent only a few months at school before being relocated to another.

This made it diffuclt for her to make any friends. She was often shunned
by her peers because she had possessed something that they didn't have:
her intelligence.

Undoubtedly, she was among the most brilliant students in Japan. She frequently
made perfect scores on her tests, though she occassionally made an error
or two.

Despite her vaunted intelligence, it was almost impossible for her to make
any friends. Sure, she had some back in her first school, but she had been
relocated so often that she lost contact with them. To avoid losing friends,
she decided not to make any friends at all. Instead, she would devote her
efforts to studying. Although, she would occasionally wish she had someone
to talk with.

Amy opened her lunch bag, and pulled a delicous-looking sandwich out. Taking
a big bite out of it, she mused over how things were going.

At last, her mother had found a right place for her to work in. That meant
she would not have to transfer to another school anymore. She hoped this
would be the case.

She observed the terrain around her. She could see the sign in Japanese
writing, "Crossroads Junior High School," displayed over the
entrance to her new school. Since it was lunch time, the students were
sitting outside, eating their meals, just like she was. But they kept their
distance from her, continuously whispering about her.

She felt terribly alone, and wanted someone to come up to her and say "Hello,"
but nobody did.

She sighed and devoured the remains of her sandwich, just as the bell rang,
signalling the end of lunch break. She got up, and was about to take a
step towards her school, when she heard a commotion to her side. She turned
aside and was greeted with an unusual sight.

A blonde-hair girl with two ridiclously long pigtails was holding on to
anther girl's leg, crying. She kept on asking her friend with auburn-colored
hair for a tiny peice of sandwich.

The friend, which Amy overheard the name and identifed her as Molly, replied,
"No, you already have eaten two of yours, and half of mine. I'm hungry,
too!" With that, she wolfed down the sandwich.

She then pulled up her blonde friend who was still crying, and began dragging
back to the school,"Come on! We'll be late to our class!"

The truth of Molly's words dawned on Amy, who had stood rooted to her spot,
not beliving what she had just witnessed. She quickly gathered her lunch
remants and discarded them in a nearby wastebasket, and quickly entered
her school. She failed to notice that the two girls she had been observing
earlier, were observing her now.

"Hey, that's Amy..." Molly recongized her.

Her friend, Serena, stopped crying at the mention of the name. She managed
to catch a glimse of her before she entered one of the classrooms.

"She's the one who got a hundred on the last test, isn't she?"
Serena asked Molly, who nodded. Several thoughts swirled around her clumsy
mind, and an idea acutally formed.

The idea vanished quickly when Serena realized that she was late to class,
and moaned. She would get another dention unless she picked up her legs...

* * * *

"Huh? Oh, not again."

Amy woke up with a start, rubbing her eyes. She was sitting silently on
a bench in seclusion at the Garden. She scolded herself for dozing off,
and revisiting her memories.

But she could not deny the truth behind her memories. Artificial, as they
may be, but they existed inside her mind, and they had profound influence
upon her.

She also realized that was the first time she had seen Serena, which she
would meet the following afternoon of that day. When they met, they became
best friends. More friends would come in later.

But she never became friends with them. Her prey, Amy Mizuno, became friends
with them instead. Not she.

She hoped that in the next few hours, that would change. She was starting
to feel anxious. Soon, Amy and she would meet face-to-face. Then, only
fate would determine the outcome.

She had been preparing herself all night for the inevitable confrontation,
pondering on how to say things to her. Hard things. Things that almost
certainly would have deadly impact upon them both. She could only hope
that, after everything Amy had endured, she had been softened up enough
to accept the truth that would be revealed.

She stretched, arching backwards. She could see the birds flying gracefully,
blissfully unaware of the impendening events. Inclining her head to the
right, she could see Tokyo Tower sprouting above the treetops. She admired
the magnificent view, and hoped that she would have a chance to visit the
tower again.

She also checked out the clock display near her bench. According to the
time, she could expect Amy Mizuno to appear anytime soon.

Sighing, Amy righted herself, and resumed her search.

True enough, she spotted her target, who was less than a hundred meters
away. She could see that the girl was still a bit nervous, looking left
then right.

A slight pout appeared on her face, and shook her head gently. "You
aren't ready, are you? Well, too bad. It's time now."

With that, she rose from her bench and began trotting towards the student,
removing a small semi-automatic colt from her pocket. She reviewed her
mission in her mind, and concluded that it was flawless.

She then uttered one final apology, examining her weapon, "Amy, please
forgive me for what I am about to do. Nobody will know about this, I swear."

She crept up behind the girl, raised the weapon, and cocked it with an
audible click. Her victim froze, and she decided to say something.

"Hello, Amy Mizuno. You're on time, as usual."

* * * *

She had entered the Garden only a few minutes ago, and had no idea where
she was supposed to meet her unknown person, so she decided to search the
park. As soon as she began her search, she heard a sound behind her.

She felt a chill go down her spine as she recognized the sound. It was
a small hand gun, possibly a semi-automatic. She knew precisely what to
do. She froze and raised her arms to indicate that she was unarmed and
posed no threat. She had no intention to end up on the ground with a bullet
wound, or dead.

Silently cursing herself for her carelessness, she prepared herself for
a spin kick which would catch her opponent by surprise with a blow to the
head.

Before she could act, however, her opponent spoke.

"Hello, Amy Mizuno. You're on time, as usual."

Caught by surprise at the mention of her name, and her timing lost, she
blinked, uttering a sound indicating disbelief.

Until this moment, Amy had assumed that she was dealing with a thief, or
a rapist. But this person was much worse than that. Much worse.

It was the same voice that had terrorized her all night ever since that
phone call she had received yesterday in the nurse's office. She had hoped
that this moment wouldn't come, but it had.

Amy began turning slowly, taking care not to make any sudden moves. For
all she knew, her opponent could be trigger-happy, and she didn't want
the gun to go off by mistake, especially since she was at the unfriendly
end.

The gun was suddenly thrust into her back forcefully, creating a sharp
pain which caused her to wince. Evidently this person didn't want her to
see her.

"Oh, no, you don't." The familiar feminine voice rang out behind
her.

Amy begged for the voice to identify itself, "Who are you, and what
do you want with me?"

There was a sigh, "You still haven't caught on yet? Well, you will
find out soon." There was a brief pause and voice then added, "But
not here, though. I know a better place."

"Where?" Amy decided to stall, trying to gather some time for
her to recognize the voice. It had sounded hauntingly familiar, but she
just couldn't place it. Surely she have heard it before?

She tried not to visualize a hole in her back as she felt the cold barrel
press into her further, causing her to arch her back involuntarily. Sweat
began to bead on her forehead.

"Quit stalling. You will find out soon enough. I prefer a quiet, secluded
spot." The voice went on, "Did you bring your friends? No, I
know. You wouldn't want them to get hurt, would you?"

Amy didn't like this. Whoever this lady is, she seems to know a lot about
me. Maybe too much, she thought. This was a serious disadvantage for her.
After all, aside from the fact that this person was female, she knew virtually
nothing about her.

Her assailant forced her to start moving, "Now, it's time we got going.
Follow my directions, and do not attempt to escape, or look around. If
you do, you will be sorry."

She had no choice but to comply with the demands. She saw a couple a short
distance from them. She indicated to the duo, "But what about the
people?"

The voice told her not to worry. After all, this typical area was usually
deserted until midday to afternoon. It was, of course, true.

Amy received a shove, the gun still pressing into her back. So they went
on, Amy following the directions deeper into the park. She tried to keep
track of where she was going, but there were so many turns and doubling
backs She could have sworn that they were going in circles. The gun jabbed
into her back painfully, followed by a sharp command whenever she made
a wrong turn or went too slowly.

After a long time, Amy was shoved hard into a couple of bushes, and emerged
on the other side, rolling on the grass, with the female behind her.

When she recovered, she could see that she was in an area that was completely
surrounded by greenery. A simple wooden bench and night lamp stood in the
middle of the small clearing.

She could hear her assailant behind her, "We're here. No one will
be able to hear us, and no one knows our whereabouts."

Amy could see that it was true. This area had been prepared, she recalled,
for couples who wanted to spend some quiet time alone.

However, this wasn't what her mysterious assailant had in mind. Amy began
trembling a bit, fearful about what would happen. Maybe she should have
told her friends about this after all.

She poised for what would happen, excepting to hear a gunshot. She deeply
wished that she had told her friends how much she had cared for them, that
she would see them again.

The gunshot never came. She heard the steps pass her instead.

Puzzled, Amy gathered enough courage to open her eyes, and gasped. She
could see that her mysterious woman was not a woman, but rather a young
girl, same age as she was. She was also wearing a school uniform similar
to hers. But that was nothing compared to what caught her eye. Blue hair.
Short blue hair.

She blinked several times in disbelief. She had never seen anyone with
hair similar to hers, and had assumed that she was the only person with
such a coiffure in the world; the odds against two of them were tremendous!

Yet there, the person in the front of her had blue hair! "How is this
possible? Who are you?"

"I think you know." The female turned face-to face with Amy,
who uttered a sharp cry of protest. "We meet at last."

Amy couldn't believe her eyes. The girl who stood in front of her had the
same blue hair and eyes as she had. The facial features also were similar
to hers, and the girls were of same height. It occurred to Amy that she
was looking at the mirror reflection of herself, except that there was
no mirror anywhere. Amy and the girl were virtually identical to each other.

As if that weren't enough, the girl spoke, lowering her weapon, "I
am Amy Mizuno, also known as Sailor Mercury, one of the Sailor Scouts fighting
for love and justice."

* * * *

Silence reigned in one desolate place of the National Garden, completely
hidden from the tourists who marveled at the beauty and exotic landscape
of the garden.

Two girls stood several meters apart from each other, each unwilling to
make a move, until Amy finally gathered her wits and asked her mirror image,
Mizuno, "How is this possible? You can't be me. You're probably of
Negaverse..."

The similar Amy shook her head, and walked over to the bench, sitting down.
She had to make Amy understand, but how? Oh yes, there was a way.

"Amy, do you recognize this?" she asked. She pulled out a metallic
rod. Amy gasped when she recognized it, and began frisking her body.

"Oh, don't worry, you have it," Mizuno assured Amy as she pulled
out a similar rod, breathing a sigh of relief. "This transformation
rod happens to be mine. Luna gave it to me on the day when one of the youmas
disguised as a teacher at the juku school tried to kill me."

Mizuno shuddered, and then shot a dark glance at Amy, who finally got up
and took a standing position, "You do remember, don't you?"

"Yes," Amy replied after a brief hesitation, "But how could
you have known? We can't be the same person!"

"Observe," Mizuno said simply, raising her rod up in the air.

"Mercury Power, Transform!" She intoned, and the rod activated
itself in the response to the call of its wielder master's call. Mizuno's
uniform vanished completely, leaving her naked. Blue ribbons of energy
quickly wrapped themselves around her, and solidified into a blue and white
Sailor Scout uniform which bore a resemblance to the school uniform she
had recently wore, except that the skirt had been considerably shortened
to mid-thighs, and the blue bow and brooch had replaced her red one.

Her tiara with blue oval crystal embedded in it appeared on her forehead,
while long blue boots that extended to just below her knees formed around
her slim legs. Long white gloves also materialized around her arms.

Mizuno terminated her transformation into Sailor Mercury with a pose. She
then turned her attention to Amy, who had stumbled to the ground in shock,
and tried to stand up again.

"Now, do you believe me?"

Amy realized that she had been holding her breath during her mirror Amy's
transformation, and released it. "How is this possible?"

"I thought you would never ask." Mercury replied, forming a smile
on her face.

* * * *

There was an unusual phenomena, a rip in the fabric of space and time,
which occured only once in a millennium. It made its appearance only briefly
and quietly, emitting no radiation of any kind, and is always invisible
against the black background of space.

It had an unusual effect on many things. Whenever the rift was open, and
any object that passed through, or skimmed by it at close range, the rift
created an exact duplicate of that object.

Recently, the rift had reopened itself, and by unbelievable odds, had materialized
itself almost directly in Planet Earth's path. When Earth skimmed along
the edge of the rift, the energies spilled across the face of the planet,
and converged on Amy Mizuno. It then created an exact duplicate of that
person, instilling awareness into the duplicate, and displaced it somewhere
else near the original.

"You mean both are identical, no alterations of any kind?" Amy
asked, having overcome her shock of her encounter with her mirror image
at last.

Mercury, who was sitting down on the bench, fidgeted a bit, "Yeah,
well except for one thing. If the object happens to be a living being,
the duplicate regains some awareness about itself. The duplicated being
knows how they came into existence, and with that comes the realization
that they are not the original.

Mercury then leaned forward, raising her hand to cut off Amy's question,
"If that's so, then how come so few things have been affected? Well,
there was something else about the rift I failed to mention."

The alternate Amy raised her head to look directly into the original Amy's
eyes as she spoke, "The rift cannot affect objects unless they have
special structure or radical alterations in form. Simply put, the rift
can only duplicate the objects that have natural forms of magic and or
energy, or have been infused with them."

"You mean...?" original Amy began.

"Yes," Mercury nodded gravely. "Since you are one of the
Sailor Scouts, you had a unique form of energy which you used as Sailor
Mercury. The rift reacted to that, and created me."

"It was a bit hard for me, you being the orginal, not me. But I learned
so much. The Rift also answered several questions, especially the one regarding
the missing Moon Princess."

Amy was caught by surprise with her twin image's reply. "No? But why..."

Mercury shook her head, and turned to one of sorrow as Amy realized that
the sailor still hadn't actually put away her gun. "I'm sorry, but
I'm afraid that I don't want anyone to know. The rift also has a problem.

"The structure of the rift is incredibly unstable. That is one of
the reasons why it creates duplicates, but there's something else. When
the rift creates the duplicates it also creates a level of instability
between the original and the duplicate.

"Amy, you have felt sharp, sudden pain several times already, right?"
Mercury inquired.

"Now that you mention it, yes I have," Amy said. Realization
dawned as she recalled the times she had experienced pain, sometimes when
she was asleep. She had dismissed them as imaginations from the nightmares
she had during that time.

Suddenly she realized something that she had forgotten, "Wait a minute,
I just remembered. You were the one who sent those messages and calls.
Why did you do it?"

Mercury remained silent as Amy continued to speak, "You sent me through
all of those horrors and troubles! Why did you do it? Why didn't you simply
come up to me and tell me right then? Why all that? WHY?" Amy was
screeching, breathing a bit rapidly now that all the memories of the last
two days returned to her.

Mercury refused to answer her question. Instead, she continued, "Those
pain you have felt --I feel them as well-- they are the result of the instability
building up. As it builds up, the pain becomes more frequent and intense.
The instability will continue to worsen until it reaches the point where
it will destroy both the original and the duplicate."

Amy drew her hands to her mouth when she heard the last words. Did this
mean that her duplicate would die? And will she die, too?

"However," Mercury continued, raising her semi-automatic Colt
at Amy, "If one of the objects are destroyed, the level of instability
will regress until it ceases to exist."

As she completed her sentence, she fired.

Amy screamed when Mercury pulled the trigger, and squeezed her eyes tight.
She anticipated the darkness to embrace her as pain flared in her chest,
doubling her over.

Then it was gone.

Amy opened her right eye warily and saw that she had received no gunshot
wound. She opened her left eye, raising her head, and saw that Mercury
had doubled over as well. She called out to Mercury cautiously, and rose
from her position.

Mercury rose as well, trying to speak and supress the pain inside her,
"Now do you see what I mean? Because of the rift, there is a level
of instability between us, and it can inflict pain upon us. If it continues
to increase, we both will be killed!" Her voice was hoarse as she
tried to recover.

She threw aside her gun. She had purposely left the blanks inside it, and
the thing was now useless to her. Even though she was Amy's duplicate and
knew everything about her, she wasn't sure about how orginal Amy would
react when she was threatened by a gun. She didn't want the thing to go
off accidentally and kill her twin before she could explain.

Having recovered sufficiently, she walked back to the bench and withdrew
a backpack from underneath it.

Amy demanded to know what Mercury was doing, but she ignored her and removed
a bulky object from the bag. Amy's eyes widened when she realized what
Mercury was up to.

The duplicate, Amy Mizuno, also known as Sailor Mercury, swiveled her energy
gun around at the original Amy and fired it. An energy blast spat forth,
and detonated itself against a tree trunk behind her.

Amy shouted at Mercury, "What are you trying to do, kill me?!?"

"Precisely." she replied simply, firing yet another round at
Amy, who was in the direct path this time. She dove quickly to the right,
avoiding the blast which decapitated another tree.

Mercury continued to fire off shots as she spoke, missing Amy as she dodged
them, "If we want the instability to stop, then one of us must die!
It's the only way! Otherwise the instability will kill us both!"

Mercury paused for a moment to recalibrate the settings on her energy gun,
then began firing. Instead of energy blasts, the gun shot out a steady
stream of deadly light.

"Lasers!" Amy had to dive again to avoid having her head cut
off. The beam of pure light singed several strands of her hair. She looked
behind her back and saw that the laser had already dissapiated. Evidently
Mercury had calibrated for a short-range, but powerful and deadly laser.

She realized that at this rate, she would not survive for long against
Mercury's gun. She decided to bolt instead of staying like a sheep waiting
to be culled.

Mercury cursed the original Amy as she dodged her blasts, and escaped through
the clearing made by her previous energy blasts. She was angry that things
weren't going according to her plan. She should have vaporized Amy with
the first blast, yet for some reason she had yanked her gun sideways at
the last second.

The shot had missed, and had given Amy an opportunity to escape, making
things more difficult for her and Amy both. This was not what she had in
mind when she created her energy gun. One shot would have completed the
job, quickly and painlessly. She didn't want her twin to suffer. But now,
that might no longer be the case.

Amy might die horribly, and the duplicated Amy didn't want that to happen.
Why did she miss?

"Amy! I'm coming! You can't escape me!" With that, Sailor Mercury
followed, her heart pumping painfully with the awareness that when she
killed Amy, she also would be killing a small part of herself.

* * * *

"This is ridiculous." Amy muttered as she ran through a hedge,
numerous small branches raking out at her body. At least she had managed
to give her twin duplicate the slip.

Her mind was swirling around with words that she and the duplicated Amy
had exchanged.

"...duplicated beings know how they came into existence, and with
that comes the realization that they are not the original."

"...the pain becomes more frequent and intense. The instability will
continue to build until it reaches the point where it will destroy..."

"...one of the objects are destroyed, the level of instability will
regress..."

"...kill me?"

"Precisely."

Amy shook her head. She just couldn't understand why her duplicate was
trying to kill her. Why didn't she just come over to Amy and admit the
truth, and they could have used their brains to solve the problem?

Amy had to do something. The alternate Mercury posed a threat to the people
in the garden as long as she continued to search for her, so she would
have to stop her. Removing her transformation rod, she shouted.

"Mercury Power, Transform!"

Just as the duplicate Amy had transformed to Sailor Mercury, Amy's school
uniform was replaced with her sailor suit, long gloves, and boots. A golden
tiara with a blue crystal embedded in it materialized on her forehead.

Completing her transformation with a pose, she was no longer Amy Mizuno,
but now Sailor Mercury.

Sailor Mercury knew what she had to do. She activated her scanner on her
head, which materialized as a blue band across her eyes. A moment later,
she had pinpointed the double Mercury's location.

She switched her scanner off, and observed her surroundings, saw a fair-sized
rock and picked it up. Calculating her plan, the scout ran towards the
predetermined location of her double, preparing herself for the inevitable
confrontation.

* * * *

The "cloned" Mercury waited patiently. She knew that Amy wouldn't
go any further, especially since she had somewhat "intentionally"
endangered the bystanders in the garden with her sudden attack on Amy.
Amy wouldn't allow that, and would return. As Sailor Mercury, perhaps.

Being Sailor Mercury would give Amy a fair chance against her. Good. She
wanted Amy to have a fair chance to win. Since she and Amy were the same
person, the fact that Amy was the original and she was her duplicate notwithstanding,
she felt that it was only fair that both should have a equal opportunity
to win.

Recalibrating her energy gun, she explored the garden in pursuit for her
escaped twin. Without warning, Amy's voice appeared out of nowhere, surrounding
her.

"Amy, you are my twin duplicate. Why are you doing this? We can find
a way to stop our instability."

For a moment there, after hearing Amy's pleas, Mercury almost gave in.
She wanted to become friends with her original, go places with her and
have fun together. She wanted it badly.

But her inner resolve wrenched Mercury's mind away from the hypnotic spell
which almost entranced her. Mercury blinked, then frowned, "No! There's
no way!" She screamed, seemingly at nobody.

There was a slight rustle behind her. Taking no chances, Mercury swiveled
around, firing. The volley of energy blasts narrowly missed their target
as the original sailor leaped out of the way. Mercury was glad to see that
her assumption that the original Amy had transformed into Sailor Mercury
was correct. But that did not refrain her from trying to draw a bead on
the leaping scout.

Original Mercury dodged yet another volley, which tore into the greenery
and ignited several small fires. When she landed, she put her idea into
action. She hurled the rock she had found earlier directly at the blazing
energy gun. The stone barreled right down the barrel just as the holder
of the weapon was preparing to fire.

The resulting explosion took out the gun, knocking the Mercury duplicate
backwards into a bush. The original Mercury ran over to the downed sailor
to ask if she was hurt.

"I'm fine. Thank you for your concern." The alternate scout pulled
herself out of the bush even as she said the words.

"Why are you doing this? Why kill me?"

The twin of the original Mercury gritted her teeth and replied, "Because
I don't want to die. I want to live!"

"Mercury Ice Storm Splash!" She unleashed a torrent of water
at her twin. The original Mercury spotted the attack at the last second,
and immediately jumped.

As she jumped, she glanced over her back and saw that the water blast had
uprooted several trees, snapping others in half as well. The water finally
froze, and the trees covered with ice crumbled into shards. She couldn't
believe that her duplicate had such power inside her.

But then, she should have known. If her duplicate can be Sailor Mercury,
then why couldn't she herself have powers as well?

"It's something you will learn later. If you live, that is!"
The duplicate jumped to follow the retreating scout.

* * * *

Somewhere nearby, a familiar face stopped besides a beautiful yellow rose,
and bent over to smell it. She was wearing a simple yellow blouse and blue
denim shorts. A moment later, the girl with auburn-colored hair resumed
her walk.

Despite the pleasant thoughts, she was a bit troubled. She had asked Serena,
one of her unusual friends, if she would like to take a walk through the
beautiful Garden nearby with her an hour and half ago. But she had rejected
her offer immediately.

"Sorry, I got to go!" Serena had replied. There was a sense of
urgency and concern inside her voice, something Molly wasn't used to hearing
from her ditzy friend.

Something terrible must have happened, but what? She had no idea. Her thoughts
were interrupted moments later by an explosion to her right.

"Huh? Was that some kind of a bomb? What's going on?" Molly said
aloud in bewilderment. She could see smoke rise briefly. Several minutes
later, she saw several trees topple over, and a blue blur shoot out into
the sky. The blur landed several yards from her, and she immediately recognized
it.

"Sailor Mercury!" Molly cried out in astonishment.

Sailor Mercury seemed a bit exhausted, and worn out. Molly watched Mercury
leap high into the air to intercept another blue blur that Molly hadn't
noticed.

She could see that Mercury was fighting with some unknown opponent, and
received a well-placed roundhouse in her stomach. Caught off-guard, Mercury
fell and crashed into the ground hard. She went skidding across the garden,
ruining the beautiful landscape.

Molly was about to run over to the downed sailor, when she heard the words
above her, "Mercury Ice Storm Splash!"

Next thing she knew, an enormous stream of water splashed over the landscape,
and froze in an instant. Sailor Mercury had jumped clear of the blast in
the nick of time, and a bit of ice froze to her heels.

Molly couldn't believe the extent of damage. Hundreds of flowers and trees
had been frozen cold, right in the middle of spring!

She saw Mercury land somewhere further away with her back turned to her,
just as her opponent landed in front of Mercury. She could see who Mercury's
opponent was, and couldn't believe her eyes.

"Another Sailor Mercury! How is this possible?" Molly gasped
in disbelief as the second Mercury launched yet another Mercury Ice Storm
Splash attack. She watched the first Mercury dodge the attack and launch
her own attack.

"Mercury Bubble Blast!" Sailor Mercury screamed, willing the
water droplets to form in the surrounding area. In moments, the entire
area was blanketed by a fine fog, and Molly was unable to see her own hands
only several inches from her face.

"Sailor Mercury!" Molly shouted, hoping that everything was okay
with the blue scout.

* * * * *

The original Mercury had hoped her attack would slow her twin duplicate
down a bit, but it was an unsuccessful attempt. If it weren't for her head
scanner, she would have been frozen by the Mercury Ice Storm Splash attack
that materialized moments after she used her Mercury Bubbles Blast attack.

She jumped straight up, and caught a hold of a branch on a nearby tree.
She swung over it, and landed atop it. She was still using her scanner,
and knew that her duplicate would be using hers as well.

A dozen avenues of attack flashed across her mind, but none of them were
effective. She had to find a way to disable, or knock out her opponent,
but how? With the Mercury Ice Storm Splash attack, the twin could easily
freeze her if she tried to attack. All she could do was to keep on dodging.

Unfortunately, she was starting to tire out. She had to find a way to end
this battle quickly. The battle had taken far longer than she had excepted,
and she was tiring out fast.

"Oh, damn!" Mercury gritted her teeth as her scanner beeped intensely,
warning her of an incoming attack. Mercury quickly thrust herself into
the air even as a block of ice shattered the tree she had been in only
a moment ago. Hundreds of spikes pelted her, and she drew herself into
a ball to reduce the chances of harm.

The fog was starting to clear away, and the original scout could see where
she was landing. However, she failed to notice a three inch-long wooden
spike before it punctured her leg.

Sailor Mercury went down, screaming and clutching her leg, as agony swept
through her leg. Realizing the danger, she managed to yank the spike out,
and attempted to stand. Pain flared and she stumbled to the ground again.

She realized that her injured leg would prove to be a great disadvantage.
Observing her leg, her fears were confirmed. There was no way she could
defend herself with an injured leg.

To make things worse, she saw her double leaping towards her with an ice
shard in her hand, poised for the kill. The double Mercury had seen the
entire thing, and decided to use it to her advantage. She grabbed an ice
shard for use as a sword. She wanted to deliver a quick, clean kill so
the original Mercury wouldn't suffer anymore. She jumped, hoisting her
shard up high.

The original Mercury remained immobile on the ground, her wide blue eyes
following the shard's motion towards her. At this moment, she realized
that she had lost her battle and would be killed.

Time seemed to slow down as the sadness overwhelmed her. After her death,
her duplicate would surely replace her, and her friends would never know
what happened to her.

She would never get the chance to graduate from her class, or to experience
love. Never.

She also would never see her friends again. She would not transform into
Sailor Mercury again to help her fellow Scouts save Earth. Never Again.

Never.

The time continued to slow down as Amy Mizuno's duplicate advanced,
preparing to end the life of the original Amy Mizuno; as a Sailor Scout
prepared to kill one of her own.

A single word buzzed around the wounded scout's mind.

Never.
Never.
Never.

A tiny voice emerged inside her mind, echoing the single word.

Never.
Never.
Never.

The voice continued to repeat it, rising in volume and intensity.

Never.
Never.
NEVER.

Something snapped inside her, and anger filled her body, causing
her to tremble. Sailor Mercury tensed her body, her mouth rising in a snarl
as she concentrated on the single word.

NEVER!

"NEVER!"Sailor Mercury screamed as she went into
reflexive stance, preparing to attack.

"Supreme Mercury Ice Storm Splash!"

There was a sudden sharp sound, almost like thunder as Mercury unleashed
her attack. In an instant, she had created an enormous, high pressure blast
of water which shot at the attacking scout. There were also innumerable
spikes of ice inside the stream traveling at high speeds.

The double Mercury had only a split second to realize that she had made
a mistake. A fatal mistake.

She received the full force of the blast. The impact of water was about
the equivalent of hitting concrete after falling from the top of a ten-story
building. The numerous ice shards also tore through her uniform into her
body, spilling out blood which dyed the water red. She went sailing across
the sky and out of sight.

The torrent ceased abruptly a moment later, and the original Mercury was
reeling. She could not believe what she had done. She had created a high-pressure
liquid water blast containing large amounts of ice shards in only a split
second.

She suddenly realized how deadly it was, especially since her twin duplicate
had been only a meter from her. She was suddenly worried about the dwindling
scout in the air.

Determined to follow, she removed her bow on her blouse, and wound it tightly
around her wounded leg. Ignoring the pain, she began hopping across the
garden, following the trail of blood.

* * * *

Molly could see that the battle had ended. She had seen one of the scouts
hurled across the sky until she vanished, while the other one was trying
to follow.

She realized that Sailor Mercury had been wounded, and decided to help.
No sooner than she had taken a step, did she hear a thunderclap.

It was the loudest she had ever heard in her life. She surprised herself
by jumping into the air in fright. She would later recall how alike she
was to Serena when she did that, but was more concerned about the wounded
blue scout.

After landing on her butt, she tried to find Sailor Mercury. She was nowhere
to be found.

"How could she have disappeared so quickly with a wounded leg?"
Molly wondered as the rain began falling.

She stood there, without noticing the cascading rain which drenched her,
staring at the trail of blood as it mingled with rainwater.

* * * *

Despite her injured limb, it took Sailor Mercury only ten minutes to
follow the trail of her fallen duplicate by leaping across the buildings,
to an abandoned warehouse.

She broke the lock on the doors and entered. She stood silently, hoping
for a sound. It came, she quickly pinpointed it, and rapidly hobbled towards
the source. She found her twin self, fearing the worst. She was unprepared
for what she saw.

After being struck by the water blast, the alternate Mercury had gone sailing
across the sky for nearly half a mile and crashed through the thick wooden
roof of the warehouse, ending up in a pile of splintered wooden boxes.

The ice shards had long ago melted, but the damage could still be seen.
There was a large hole in her stomach, and many smaller ones in the chest
region.

Incredibly, she was still alive. She was losing blood rapidly, though.
The wounded duplicate turned her head aside and saw her friend kneeling
beside her.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do it!" orginal Mercury flustered,
trying her best to mend the wounds on the alternate Mercury's body. She
was restrained, however, by her patient.

"No, it's not your fault. It was mine, not yours..."

"What do you mean?" The doctoring Mercury struggled to contain
the blood gushing out onto her chest.

"The mail, and calls. I had tried to soften you up somewhat..."
The duplicate coughed up blood, and tried to continue, "I had pushed
you too far..."

There was nothing Mercury could do. She had seen enough medical data to
know that her duplicate was dying.

"No! Please don't die!"

"No, it had to happen. It's the only way." Her breathing was
becoming quite shallow, and she was no longer looking at the original,
but at the ceiling instead. "I only wish I could have won instead."

The dying sailor raised her right hand for Mercury to grasp. She continued
to cough as she spoke, "Amy, please take care of your friends. They're
valuable, and you cannot replace them. You must protect them, as well as
Princess Serenity..."

"Princess Serenity...? Who are you talking about?"

All of the sudden, the blood-stained scout uniform of the doomed sailor
vanished, replaced by her school uniform. It looked as tattered, blood-stained,
and wet as her previous uniform was.

Amy then pulled out her transformation rod and handed it over to the sailor,
urging her to take it. Mercury protested, but she pressed on, "Take
it, you know what to do with it. Please..."

Reluctantly, Mercury took the rod out of Amy's hands, gripping it tightly.
Amy gave out a sigh of relief as she did so.

"Thanks. Funny... I don't feel any pain..." Amy smiled at her
Sailor Mercury who continued to hold her hand. With that, she closed her
eyes forever.

Sailor Mercury sat still in shock until she started shaking the body, "Wake
up! Please wake up!"

The chest ceased rising and became still. Amy's hand went limp in her hands.
When she realized what had happened, she screamed, "NO!" and
wept.

Several long minutes passed as rain poured in through the hole from the
roof upon them. The crying eventually subsided.

Sailor Mercury stood up, ignoring the pain in her right leg, and stared
at the dead body of her duplicate, Amy Mizuno. She released her breath
and nodded her head once, paying the respects to her dead friend.

Outside the warehouse, lighting bolts flashed across the skies and the
rain continued to pour. People ran everywhere, trying to get out of the
downpour, unaware of the events that took place in a small abandoned warehouse.

The blue sailor opened her left hand and stared at the transformation rod
inside it. Emotionlessly, she raised her right arm, and her power surged
once more again. The rod was instantly encased inside the half an inch-thick
layer of ice.

Unconsciously, she snapped the rod, which had been rendered brittle by
the intense cold of the ice, into two. She then dropped them near the body.
One of pieces that struck the ground shattered, while the top half had
somehow remained intact.

Sailor Mercury turned abruptly, holding back tears in her eyes, and began
walking towards the exit. She did not spare the dead body one last look
as she entered the storm.

The storm raged joyously, welcoming its newest companion.

Author's Note: Now that you have finished reading my fanfic, please
read the After-notes. It will explain several things that had been disputed
about.

Please tell me what you think about my fanfic. Please send comments, questions,
suggestions, or flames, to me at Robert
Hatch, Jr.

Author's Note
Created on March 9, 1997
Last Modified: August 4, 1997

Hello, everyone. This is my second attempt in Sailor Moon fanfics, but
the first posted. Since fanfic writing is still pretty new to me, please
take in some consideration about some things below.

Disclaimers: Sailor Moon: Crimson Sailor Mercury fanfic and characters
are based on Sailor Moon animation series. Sailor Moon animation is based
upon Japanese comic book, or manga, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon, created
by Takeuchi Naoko. Sailor Moon Anime Japanese Version Acknowledgments:
Sailor Moon copyright (C) 1992 by Takeuchi Naoko/Kodansha, produced by
TOEI Animation.

Sailor Moon Anime North American Version Acknowledgments: Sailor Moon adaptation
(C) 1995 by DIC Entertainment, syndicated by Program Exchange. All rights
reserved.

You should be aware that all rights to Sailor Moon in this series belongs
to Takeuchi Naoko. However, there are several things that are my creation.
This fanfic I have written are my creation as well. (NOTE: The (C) symbol
is the copyright symbol. I used this one because the actual symbol is not
ASCII compliant.)

Minor Note: The Japanese names listed here in the disclaimer are listed
in Japanese style, with family names first.

Crimson Sailor Mercury is an one-time fanfic, dealing with one of the scouts.
However, if you like this story, then I might extend it into a saga. I
certainly have a quite few more good ideas for later additions. I already
have a possible follow-up fanfic on the waiting bench. But please send
me e-mail to let me know how you liked my story. I would love to write
more stories.

I have to warn you, though, this story will be bit confusing at start.
So please be patient and keep on reading. Everything will be explained
at the end (well almost everything). But if you still don't understand,
please e-mail me and I'll try to help you.

I had included the after-notes which explains the major disputes that my
fanfic had created. But please do *not* read it until you finish the fanfic.

As you already have read above, this is my second fanfic. My first fanfic
series is known as Sailor Moon: The Dark Crescent Moon, The Return Ascension
of the Darkness. It is still far from completion, and will not be able
to release it for several months.

Oh, here are the names of the characters in this story, and I'm pretty
certain that you already know the North American version names. :) (NOTE:
The Japanese names are listed with family names first)

(Note: The Scouts' names are in NA version, but has Japanese version
for last names.)

I also had created a new type of attack for Mercury: Supreme Mercury Ice
Bubbles Freeze: This creates a tightly focused water blast, at very high
speeds. The water blast also contains numerous ice shards which are very
sharp. This attack can cause serious injury and is lethal at close range.

Please do not copy, borrow, or use my creations for any of your fanfics
without my permission. If there was anything similar to what I've had created,
then I assure you that I was completely unaware of this, and apologize
for any inconvenience this may have caused.